At a communications receiver the observed signal is a corrupted version of the transmitted signal. This distortion in the received signal is due to the physical characteristics of the channel, including multipath propagation, the non-idealities of copper wires and impulse noise. Equalization is a process to combat these distortions in order to recover the original transmitted signal. Roughly stated, the equalizer tries to implement the inverse transfer function of the channel while taking into account the channel noise. The equalizer parameters can be tuned to this inverse transfer function using an adaptive algorithm. In many cases, the algorithm uses a training sequence to drive the equalizer parameters to the optimum solution. But, for time-varying channels or multiuser channels the use of a training sequence is inefficient in terms of bandwidth, as bandwidth is wasted due to the periodic re-transmission of the training sequence. A blind equalization algorithm is a practical method to eliminate this training sequence. An equalizer adapted using a blind algorithm is a key component of a bandwidth efficient receiver for broadcast and point-to-multipoint communications. The initial convergence performance of a blind adaptive equalizer depends on the higher-order statistics of the transmitted signal. In modern digital systems, Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP) is often used for signal shaping and to mitigate the error propagation problem of a decision feedback equalizer (DFE). The concept of THP comes from pre-equalization. In fact, it is a nonlinear form of pre-equalization, which bounds the higher-order statistics of the transmitted signal. But, THP and blind equalization are often viewed as incompatible equalization techniques. In this research, we give multiple scenarios where blind equalization of a THP-encoded signal might arise. With this motivation we set out to answer the question, can a blind equalizer successfully acquire a THP-encoded signal? We investigate the combination of a Tomlinson-Harashima precoder on the transmitter side and a blind equalizer on the receiver side. By bounding the kurtosis of the THP-encoded signal, we show that THP actually aids the initial convergence of blind equalization. We find that, as the symbol constellation size increases, the THP-encoded signal kurtosis approaches that of a uniform distribution, not a Gaussian. We investigate the compatibility of blind equalization with THP-encoded signals for both SISO and MIMO systems. In a SISO system, conventional blind algorithms can be used to counter the distortions introduced in the received signal. However, in a MIMO system with multiple users, the other users act as interferers on the desired user's signal. Hence, modified blind algorithms need to be applied to mitigate these interferers. For both SISO and MIMO systems, we show that the THP encoder ensures that the signal distribution approaches a non-Gaussian distribution. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we study the effects of Tomlinson-Harashima precoding on the performance of Bussgang-type blind algorithms and verify our theoretical analysis. The major contributions of this thesis are: • A demonstration that a blind equalizer can successfully acquire a THP-encoded signal for both SISO and MIMO systems. We show that THP actually aids blind equalization, as it ensures that the transmitted signal is non-Gaussian. • An analytical quantification of the effects of THP on the transmitted signal statistics. We derive a novel bound on the kurtosis of the THP-encoded signal. • An extension of the results from a single-user SISO scenario to multiple users and a MIMO scenario. We demonstrate that our bound and simulated results hold for these more general cases. Through our work, we have opened the way for a novel application of training sequence-less equalization: to acquire and equalize THP-encoded signals. Using our proposed system, periodic training sequences for a broadcast or point-to-multipoint system can be avoided, improving the bandwidth efficiency of the transceiver. Future modem designs with THP encoding can make use of our advances for bandwidth efficient communication systems.

A novel design paradigm for wireless data delivery involves use of a scheduler at a base station to schedule users awaiting transmission and send downlink data to these users with all available cell power. This is unlike previous systems that share the available downlink power between users and trade off interference with capacity. The concept is used in 3G wireless standards like 1xEVDO and HSDPA. The scheduler is designed to exploit the peaks in channels seen by different users and transmit data to the user that can support the best rate. In contrast, antenna diversity, where multiple antennas are deployed at the receiver or transmitter; has the effect of improving received signal fidelity by averaging the channel variation. In this thesis, we evaluate the joint effect of user diversity and antenna diversity for various scheduling algorithms. The system is first studied with a single user to calculate theoretical throughput values. A loaded system is then simulated and throughput trends are plotted for each user. Total system capacity is evaluated in terms of served bytes for various combinations of scheduling algorithm, diversity type and channel quality. Multi-user scheduling diversity is studied using the same system simulation model via Tomlinson Harashima precoding. Results are generated for various cell powers. Single-user and multi-user scheduling cases are compared to understand the pros and cons of each approach. / Master of Science

Theoretic results have shown that the capacity of a channel does not decrease if the receiver observes the transmitted signal in the presence of interference, provided that the transmitter knows this interference non-causally. That is, if the transmitter has non-causal access to the interference, by using proper precoding this interference could be “avoided” (as if it were not present) under the same transmit power constraint. It indicates that lossless (in the sense of capacity) precoding is theoretically possible at any signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR). This is of special interest in digital watermarking, transmission for ISI channels as well as for MIMO broadcast channels. Recent research has elegantly demonstrated the (near) achievability of this “existence-type” result, while the complexity is notable. An interesting question is what one can do when very little extra complexity is permitted. This thesis treats such special cases of this problem in order to shed some light on this question. In the AWGN channel with additive interference, an optimum modulator is designed under the constraint of a binary signaling alphabet with binary interference.Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP), which is originally proposed for ISI channels, is improved by picking up optimized parameters and then taken as a benchmark. Simulation results show that the Optimum Modulator always outperforms the THP with optimized parameters. The difference in performance, in terms of mutual information between channel input and output as well as coded bit error rate with Turbo codes, is significant in many scenarios.

Submitted by Hellen Luz (hellencrisluz@gmail.com) on 2017-10-02T17:05:11Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_TechniquesDownstreamRate.pdf: 1238526 bytes, checksum: 6b7ca82987aca1343ace4357e45edf39 (MD5) / Rejected by Irvana Coutinho (irvana@ufpa.br), reason: Devolvendo... on 2017-10-03T14:13:39Z (GMT) / Submitted by Hellen Luz (hellencrisluz@gmail.com) on 2017-10-03T14:15:04Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_TechniquesDownstreamRate.pdf: 1238526 bytes, checksum: 6b7ca82987aca1343ace4357e45edf39 (MD5) / Rejected by Edisangela Bastos (edisangela@ufpa.br), reason: on 2017-10-10T17:03:03Z (GMT) / Submitted by Hellen Luz (hellencrisluz@gmail.com) on 2017-10-16T14:12:59Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_TechniquesDownstreamRate.pdf: 1238526 bytes, checksum: 6b7ca82987aca1343ace4357e45edf39 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Edisangela Bastos (edisangela@ufpa.br) on 2017-11-13T15:44:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_TechniquesDownstreamRate.pdf: 1238526 bytes, checksum: 6b7ca82987aca1343ace4357e45edf39 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-11-13T15:44:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Dissertacao_TechniquesDownstreamRate.pdf: 1238526 bytes, checksum: 6b7ca82987aca1343ace4357e45edf39 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-10 / FADESP - Fundação de Amparo e Desenvolvimento da Pesquisa / Conforme a tecnologia DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) atinge o seu limite de largura de banda física e o modelo Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) se torna um substituto em potencial, novas técnicas são desenvolvidas para lidar com as exigências da indústria de acesso à Internet. Nesse contexto, o padrão recém acordado do International Telecommunication Union (ITU), o G.9700 (G.fast) traz para a rede de cobre uma renovação de sua vida útil, com o uso de técnicas como o Vectoring. Esta, apesar de ser uma ferramenta poderosa para que DSL se torne uma tecnologia competitiva para a fibra óptica, ainda deve lidar com o problema de que os assinantes podem obter taxas diferentes em seus CPEs (Customer Premises Equipments), causado principalmente por aspectos físicos do canal. Com isso em mente, este trabalho propõe métodos para balancear as taxas entregues às linhas dos usuários no downstream. Isso é feito por meio de diferentes ordenações das colunas da matriz do canal, em cenários que utilizam o Precoder Tomlinson-Harashima (THP) até 200 MHz. Simulações foram feitas usando cada método de balanceamento de taxas em seis cabos medidos, a fim de demonstrar os progressos de cada método. Estas simulações são estendidas para o ainda não validado cenário Near-Far, que tenta representar as situações em que algumas linhas têm comprimento maior do que outras, e serve apenas como referência. Os métodos propostos produziram resultados promissores de balanceamento, com reduções de até 95,79% do desvio padrão para o cabo Swisscom I51, quando se comparando resultados de um método de algoritmo genético com aqueles do THP. / As the DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) technology reaches its physical bandwidth limit and the Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) model becomes a potential substitute, new techniques and standards are developed to cope with the requirements from the Internet access industry. In this context, the newly agreed G.9700 (G.fast) standard, from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), brings to the copper plant a renewal of its lifespan with the use of techniques such as Vectoring. Although Vectoring is a powerful tool for DSL to become a competitive technology for optical fiber, it must deal with the problem that subscribers still may get differing rates at their CPEs (Customer Premises Equipment), caused mainly by physical aspects of the channel. With that in mind, this work proposes methods of balancing the achievable rates delivered to user lines at Downstream. This is done by using different column sortings of the channel matrix, in scenarios that utilize the Tomlinson-Harashima Precoder (THP) up to 200 MHz. Simulations using each rate balancing method on six measured cables are made in order to show each method’s progress. These simulations are extended to the Near-Far Scenario, which tries to resemble the situations where some lines have greater length than others, that is, differing distances between the CPE and the DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer). The proposed methods yielded promising balancing result, with reductions of up to 95.79% of the standard deviation for the Swisscom I51 cable, when comparing results of a genetic algorithm method with those of the THP.

This thesis is targeted at precoding methods and resource allocation for the downlink of fixed multi-user multi-antenna broadband wireless systems. We explore different utilizations of precoders in transmission over frequency-selective channels. We first consider the weighted sum-rate (WSR) maximization problem for multi-carrier systems using linear precoding and propose a low complexity algorithm which exhibits near-optimal performance. Moreover, we offer a novel rate allocation method that utilizes the signalto- noise-ratio (SNR) gap to capacity concept to choose the rates to allocate to each data stream. We then study a single-carrier transmission scheme that overcomes known impairments associated with multi-carrier systems. The proposed scheme utilizes timereversal space-time block coding (TR-STBC) to orthogonalize the downlink receivers and performs the required pre-equalization using Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP).We finally discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed method.

This thesis is targeted at precoding methods and resource allocation for the downlink of fixed multi-user multi-antenna broadband wireless systems. We explore different utilizations of precoders in transmission over frequency-selective channels. We first consider the weighted sum-rate (WSR) maximization problem for multi-carrier systems using linear precoding and propose a low complexity algorithm which exhibits near-optimal performance. Moreover, we offer a novel rate allocation method that utilizes the signalto- noise-ratio (SNR) gap to capacity concept to choose the rates to allocate to each data stream. We then study a single-carrier transmission scheme that overcomes known impairments associated with multi-carrier systems. The proposed scheme utilizes timereversal space-time block coding (TR-STBC) to orthogonalize the downlink receivers and performs the required pre-equalization using Tomlinson-Harashima precoding (THP).We finally discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed method.